Footage: Protesters in Saigon Fight Back Against Government Crackdown, Police Forced to Flee

Photo viaDan Lam Bao

Earlier this month, the city of Saigon and its surrounding areas were swept by a series of major worker demonstrations. The protests lasted more than a week, and sparked a confrontation between communist authorities and protest participants. Resistance to government crackdown was so fierce that members of the VCP police were forced to flee, with protesters giving chase.

For eight consecutive days, workers took to the streets to protest against the Vietnamese Communist government in response to a new law passed last November that limits citizens’ eligibility to claim social insurance. As a result of the new legislation, the people of Vietnam are unable to collect the social insurance money, which they have been paying into all their working lives, until the ages of 55 and 60, for women and men, respectively.

The social insurance fund is paid for by the working population of Vietnam through taxes, and is supposed to be available to the people during periods of unemployment. However, because of the new law passed by the Communist government, the people will be unable to claim any of this money until they are well approaching the age of seniority. This presents some obvious problems, such as the fact that the majority of Vietnam’s working population is well below the age range of 55-60, and are therefore the largest age group that will need to claim this money.

Another pressing issue that workers identify with this social insurance legislation is the fear that there may not be any money left in the fund by the time they reach ages 55 and 60. As one may or may not know, the VCP has a tendency to appropriate money inappropriately, allocating funds that do not belong to them right into their own pockets. Corruption within the VCP is a widely known reality, and like the many cases in the past, it is suspected that the government is siphoning money from the social insurance fund, just like they do in so many other areas of the treasury. The age restriction is believed to be a ploy by the Communist Party to bide time and prevent citizens from claiming money that no longer exists as a result of government corruption.

Thus, in reaction to the new law and all its implications, the workers in Southern Vietnam assembled in the streets of Saigon to protest against the VCP. The protests lasted for eight days between late March and early April, 2015, and drew as many as 90,000 participants on its first day alone. It would eventually expand to nearby cities as well, sparking strikes in Binh Duong, Long An, Tay Ninh, and Tien Giang.

In typical communist fashion, the police were called in to terrorize and crackdown on the protesters, with the ultimate goal of crushing the demonstration. However, in an unprecedented twist, the protesters in Saigon turned against the government forces and fought them back, causing many policemen to flee from the scene.

As can be seen, the VCP police force attempted to surround the protesters using their typical crackdown tactics. Only this time, the protesters pushed them right back, and in the end, caused the police to break up and run like a pack of ducks. Just goes to show how cowardly the communist forces actually are. They are trained to surround, isolate, and terrorize people who don’t fight back. When met with fierce resistance however, as exemplified by the video above, they just drop everything and run.